1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the transmission of data via frame relay networks. Particularly, it relates to fragmenting data packets to be transmitted over a frame relay network and more particularly, it relates to dynamically determining optimum fragment sizes.
2. Description of the Related Art
When transmitting realtime and non-realtime data over the same frame relay serial interface, frame relay fragmentation is required. The frame relay implementation agreements call for fixed fragment sizes only. This convention fails to take advantage of the full bandwidth of a system.
Most layer 3 protocols such as SNA (System Network Architecture) and IP (Internet Protocol) and some layer 2 protocols such as PPP (Point-to-Point) and FR (Frame Relay) support fragmentation but they do not dynamically set the fragment sizes to maximize bandwidth utilization.